At work, it’s tempting to think that status is everything. Research from London Business School suggests, however, that status momentum might be more important.

Traditionally, we assume that power dynamics are pretty clear-cut, as those who control more resources have more power. The research suggests things are slightly more nuanced, however, especially when it comes to the momentum of which people rise (or fall) through hierarchical systems.

“Much of the existing research looked at status and rank as a fixed entity; we wanted to take a more dynamic view,” the researchers explain.

Changing status

Rankings are pretty ubiquitous throughout society, and we may even have an inbuilt ability to sort our social rank, and the research argues that we also have an inherent ability to gauge the momentum of that rank.

“Status is a fixed resource within a hierarchy. By definition, the rise of one player must mean someone else falls,” the researchers explain. “This means we’re all jostling for just a few top spots and looking for ways to enhance and protect our rank.”

They found that even top-ranked people are more likely to make mistakes and be nervous around someone who is making a strong rise up the rankings. This is even though ostensibly they are more skilled than their opponent.

To the test

The ideas were put to the test by observing the world of professional chess and tennis, where rankings are both highly visible and highly fluid. In total, they monitored over 5.2 million observations from chess tournaments and 117,762 from professional tennis.

The results show that players were negatively affected when they faced a player with positive status momentum. The researchers believe the fact that this was visible across both cognitive and physical domains is important. This impact emerged via a rise in the number of unforced errors.

“What we’re seeing isn’t simply a case of people losing or missing points because their opponent is getting better,” the researchers explain. “People may look at these rankings and say, ‘Well, that player is just playing more and getting better, so no wonder they’re beating high-ranking opponents,’ but clearly that’s not the case.”

Affecting performance

Indeed, in chess, the chances of winning from the top-ranked player fell from 65% to 30% when they faced an opponent with strong upward momentum.

It seems that we’re able to project the future rank of their upwardly mobile opponent, and this turns into a psychological threat, which undermines our performance.

“What we’re seeing is that people can very easily get in their own heads and start psyching themselves out,” the researchers explain. “Even experts are more likely to make mistakes when they are aware that their competitor has been gaining status momentum.”

The results also remind us that rank and status are not the same, and that the pace at which we move through the ranks is also a crucial factor in conferring status.